Starts of the Week + Week 18 Breakdown, Nasty Boys - Fantasy Football Podcast for 1/2

Hi, this is Eric Dickerson, NFL Hall of Famer, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in! It's week 18! It is not. And we're still here! We are. But it's not football time. No. Oh, yeah, it's Thursday. I'm not even sure much of, I mean, only some of the games will be football this week. But we're here!

You put a poll up, Andy, on your Twitter, on your ex, asking how many people are in a week 18 championship game, and about 10% of people said, we're still playing. Yep, 10%. 10% of people. Grody. Have. Ah, these are. They have commissioners that are. Winners. That are stuck in the mud, you know? That's all right. Fix it next year. We got you this year. Yep, we're here. We're here. We've got our best effort at matchup breakdowns. Some games are easy. Some games are very, very meaningful. It will not be hard to break down your start set for Minnesota-Detroit this week.

Nope. That won't be difficult. It won't be hard to figure out your Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Falcons and some of those. But we'll do our best to walk through the matchups. We have news to talk about. We do have starts of the week. And we have a reminder for the champs out there. By the way, I am looking for a new family. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Figured. You got rid of that one, huh? You know, as great as Al apparently texted my father as well. And I saw him and he said, yeah, I got that text, but I didn't know what was going on.

I was like, he totally didn't understand what was happening. I like that. I basically called that beforehand. I said, oh, you did. Yeah. I was like, your parents are probably too old to be able to figure this out. Thanks for putting a classic episode together at my expense, Al. And thanks for being such a good sport. I want to tell you when the show is going on and I knew that, I mean, spontaneous congratulations. I know there are more coming after you had my wife on the first one. And you don't know how much I was hoping that the next one was going.

I was going to hear the voice of one of your two wives that I wasn't just my family. I thought maybe he got Tiffany to say something. But no, it was a full pile on. And I did make my son, Nathan, believe he was not my co-manager. Nice. Yeah. And I made him believe it for a good few hours. To be quite honest, he should not be your co-manager anymore. I mean, that's crossing a line. It was, yeah, it was real problematic for that relationship. But we'll recover, I think. A reminder for the champs out there, the t-shirts, the Foot Clan title t-shirt, shopballers.com.

Your trophies. You can go to fantasychamps.com for trophies, championship rings, belts. And if you buy a trophy over there or a belt and put the code FREERING into the checkout department, into the checkout coupon area, you get a free ring. Well, you also have to have the ring in your cart. Yeah, I would do that. If you type in free ring, but you don't have a ring in your cart, you're not getting a ring. No, a ring will not just show up. They don't put it in. It would have been free. It would have been. So you can check that out.

We're on X at the FF Ballers. We're a year-round show. We'll be here next week. Schedule shifts to Tuesday, Thursday episodes in the playoffs and offseason. And we will also have a bonus weekly episode at jointhefoot.com as we do each and every week and have for the last, what, 10 years for the Foot Clan, answering your questions, having a lot of fun over the offseason. I think that takes care of everything here at the top. Glad you're feeling better today, Al. Appreciate it. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Kings are still there, apparently. I guess it's...

That was not intentional. Is that the new graphic moving forward? No, I'll get it switched back. He was on it again? Yeah. We might have forgotten to switch that back. I was going to say, breaking news, the Falcon back in the office after, what, six months? Yeah, he took a year off. This was a sabbatical? Is this a sabbatical? Is that what we're calling this? Yeah, that's what it is. Well, welcome back, man. Yeah, you've got to be very refreshed. Very. Yeah, yeah. Now, who has the... Yeah, he's got the toilet trophy back. Congratulations. Hey, I got a trophy over here, too.

I'm glad I changed the camera. All right, the Eagles announced they're going to arrest key starters. Kenny Pickett's a DMP. So, what is it, Tanner McKee? Something like that. And Barkley, very likely to sit in this one, although he did come out and say, after he slept on it, he kind of wanted. He wants the record. He wants a chance to be part of history. But Sirianni has said, essentially, that it's a special record, but you've got to do what's best for the team. So, we expect him to sit. I don't like that. It's a little bit funky. If I were Sirianni, I mean, I'd just be like, dude, Dickerson did in 16, brother.

That's fair. Be like, you want it in 17 games? You want to take the record that way? Like, eh. No one will ever give two farts about the number of games. Ever. 20 years from now, if Saquon has his record, people are not going to talk about it. The olds will care. And I'm counting us as the olds. But they die off. Yeah, eventually. Oh, no way. I mean, you have the record or you don't, period. But here's the thing. Yes, eventually, people of our age will be gone and won't care about it. But honestly, how much Eric Dickerson, I've watched footage of him play.

He looked absolutely incredible. You know how much I care about Eric Dickerson as the player, though? He wasn't in my era. I don't care. So, his record's like. But you know who has the record. And you hear his name brought up all the time, every year. Yes. For one reason. And it will be the Saquon record for the next 50. Exactly. 50 years worth of talking about. Well, once again, maybe. Until Cam Scadaboo breaks it. Yeah. Until a player comes in and they're at 18 games. Which will be like next year. And then that record is gone rapidly. That's a good point.

That's the best point, I think, to me. It actually would be gone pretty quick. Do it in 16 next time, Barkley. All right. He could still play. This is not a guarantee that he's being benched yet. Mitch Trubisky will get the majority of the work for the Bills. Carson Wentz for the Chiefs. Jimmy G for the Rams. Josh Dobbs for the 49ers with the Purdy injury. You also have George Kittle very unlikely to play in that game. He's banged up. Tyler Huntley will start for the Dolphins, most likely. And then Anthony Richardson said he couldn't even get out of bed last week with back spazes.

Same brother. He's just so tired. Same brother. The Cardinals ruled it. You have no back spazes, but very similar. Yeah. No, I was only agreeing with the couldn't get out of bed part. Yeah. James Conner will not play. He will not finish. He did it. With a complete season. Oh, man. Austin Eckler designated. We've got to get those out of the way at the beginning of the year. I know. Just start with like two missed games. Yeah. And then play the rest of the season. That way he doesn't feel the pressure to like disappoint us. Week three? Yeah. Just week three.

Just take it off. Eckler designated to return. Full practice. Will play. Nice. He's a dart throw this week. Amir Abdullah didn't practice after the big week last week. I can't believe that's a storyline. It's a Wednesday. So, I mean, if he's back at practice tomorrow, then he looked so good this last week. I mentioned Kittles. Debo didn't practice. Pearsall limited. And Lad McConkie, Josh Palmer, Gus Edwards, DMPs, Jalen Waddell limited. Kate Otten didn't practice for. This will be a third straight miss for him. And Aaron Jones limited should be back for the big game on Sunday night. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance.

Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Starts of the week. Well, week 18, it's a fun one. I will go with Jared Goff. What are you looking for? I'm looking for the... King Goffrey in week 18. The largest over-under in any game since 2020. Projected team total of nearly 30 points. Really? And they're averaging 33 points per game at home. Or 36 at home. So, yeah. I'm going to go with Jared Goff against Minnesota. The Dominator at home. Holy crap. That game is going to be so fun. The Dominator and the Dominator. I think it opened at 52 or 52 and a half.

And it's just skyrocketed. My start of the week is Laser Mayfield, baby. Yeah. Laser. He got you here. He got you to the championship. He is in a win and get in situation. They're 13 and a half point favorites at home versus a rat tail. You can take this one to the bank. He currently has 4,279 yards and 39 passing touchdowns with a 72% completion percentage. Only other player in NFL history to have those three numbers is Drew Brees. He has been awesome. He also is. He's on the precipice of, I think, like three escalators. Yeah. He's going to get some money.

He can earn himself a lot more money. Those guys would love to have them. And a playoff berth. Yes. Would love to have those guys. But in case I don't. Bryce Young. Say the rat tail. Dang it. No, no. I can't go down that far. That's a danger. That is not a path I'm willing to walk. But Bryce Young against Atlanta. Bryce Young has actually been consistent lately. And since the bye, he's the QB9 in fantasy, averaging about 18 points a game. He's running a bit more. Like in that six-game span, he's averaging 5.6 rushing points per game. It's the sixth most for quarterbacks among that time.

So, he's getting it done. The Atlanta defense is PU, stinky, stinky. And I think that Bryce Young, he's in play here. All right. At running back, I'm going to go combo platter. Rookie backups. Blake Corum, Isaac Garindo. A lot of talk about the workload Corum's going to get this week in a game that doesn't matter for the playoffs situation. At home against Seattle. Excited to see him get a big workload, McVay said. And Garindo. I think this is an opportunity for Garindo to end the season to put himself in a position to compete for that backup role next year. He's averaging 5.1 yards per carry on the season.

He was a top 12 running back last week against Detroit. So, give me the rookie backups. The Garindo thing is so interesting for an extra. Kyle, correct me if I'm wrong. I think Jordan Mason's a free agent. And it's like, what does that whole scenario look like? Because they were, to start the year, they were so publicly enamored and vocal of their support of Jordan Mason. Elijah Mitchell, actually, is how they started the offseason. Well, yes. With their public support of him over. Sure. But then the support for Jordan Mason, but with them both possibly gone. Yeah. And then Garindo taking the job.

And it's like, has Jordan Mason played himself into a different opportunity? It's going to be very fun to watch. It would just be a matter of, like, I don't think he's going to get a bunch of money. No, no. He'll be a backup committee. But he'll get more money than San Francisco will offer them if they like Garindo. Yeah. Yeah, I agree. It'll be really interesting to see where he lands. And I could see him really just not getting, because he got injured, like, just not getting a relevant role. And then he'll be a name that we have to remember someday.

My running back start of the week, J.K. Dobbins. Going to Vegas. He's going to play some slot machines. He came back last week, ran the ball 19 times, 76 yards on the ground and a touchdown. Right now the Chargers, they're five-point road favorites in a game that really matters to them. They can improve to the number five seed with a win and a Steelers loss. That would be playing the Texans instead of the sixth seed, which seems likely to play the Ravens. So, I think I would much rather play the Texans if I was them. In week one, we saw this matchup.

He was the running back four on the week, 10 for 135 and a touchdown. So, it's a good matchup. They need the win. Dobbins is also in play for comeback player of the year. So, I'm sure he wants to put an exclamation point on that. Is he actually? Yes. He's a favorite, I think. Not Burrow? Burrow. I don't know if Burrow's going to be. Like, that's a very subjective situation with what a comeback represents. Him coming from an injury like that, what Dobbins suffered and returning to form is rare. Sure. So, I'm not sure that, you know, Burrow's situation is going to fit.

All right. I'm going with... Do we have... Burrow is still the favorite? Is Burrow still the favorite on comeback player of the year? I haven't looked at those odds a single time this year. I guess Dobbins is sitting at third most likely. So, he could... Like Jason said, he could secure it with a big... His injury during the year might hurt him. I'm going with Jalen Warren against the Cincinnati Bengals. He has been above the Warren line each of the last two weeks. Which is... Ten points. Ten fancy points. Which is ten points a game. Seventeen opportunities in both games.

That's actually the most he's ever seen in back-to-back games in his career. And over the last six weeks, since he is dead last against running backs, we want to target that matchup. Yes, he was a limited participant yesterday in practice, talking about Jalen Warren. So, I'm expecting him to play. And the way that... I mean, just interesting things to track. Like, Warren versus Najee. Essentially, they were both playing to try and get the Pittsburgh Steelers role for next year. Because they're both free agents. And it was like, oh, this is so easy. Najee. This might be shifting here at the end of the year.

Do you remember when Jason made a very famous dynasty trade? He's made a few of them, but which one? It involved a wide receiver. Was his name CeeDee Lamb? No, I'm not looking at that one. It was... Oh, is it... Jordan Addison. Oh! The most recent one. Yes. Okay. Who was the wide receiver five since week nine on a roster that may roll back Sam Darnold. Who, by the way, pro bowler Sam Darnold. Pro bowler. Yep. Jaden Daniels this year. Yep. They got in. But Addison must watch game. The other side of the golf experience here. I'm going Addison. Detroit.

They're going to give up points. I mean, they just do right now. And since week nine, averaging eight targets, 72 yards a game, and one touchdown, while Chris Olave's just waiting to get back on the field. How's... What was that trade, Jay? It was... I traded away Jordan Addison. Yeah, this was before the season. This was before the season. And two firsts for Chris Olave. It doesn't feel good. You know, there were... It was a very... You win some, you lose some. It was a very polarizing trade, by the way, in the community at the time. I remember seeing strong opinions, the pro Addison movement, the...

Yeah. I mean, I... Losing the picks. You were trying to go for it. I love Jordan Addison. He was my guy last year. He was a good player. But, yeah, it has not worked out. Granted, I did think Chris Olave would be playing football. Sure. Which is, like, a helpful part of that trade. Another player... That's what hurt you. ...who I traded for is my start of the week. Drake London this week against Carolina. They're in a must-win game for Atlanta. And in the two Michael Pinnock starts so far, London has been targeted 38% of his routes, which is outstanding.

38% of the team's first read targets. He's the wide receiver 10 on the season. He's averaging 9 targets and 68 receiving yards a game. And the matchup against Carolina is great. They're 31st in EPA per pass attempt on the season. Drake London, I think, is a very, very good start. You always want these players in Week 18 that have something to play for. So, hopefully, you've got them on your roster. Speaking of, they have something to play for. I'm going with J-Mo Williams against the Minnesota Vikings. We want pieces of that. We saw the two touchdowns on a Monday night.

Minnesota, they're a pass funnel right now. Teams are throwing the ball 64% of the time. That's number one in the NFL. And they are dead last in schedule-adjusted points to the wide receivers. Because of that, they're a great rush defense and great Minnesota, I'm speaking of. And then they're a great offense. So, teams have to throw. All right, my tight end. I'm going to go with Noah Gray. Travis Kelsey very likely to get the day off for the Chiefs. Noah Gray against Denver with Carson Wentz, who is playing for money, money. He's playing for an opportunity to be a backup.

Once again, he did this last year for, what was it, the Rams? I don't remember. Yeah, I think it was the Rams. It was the Rams against San Francisco in Week 7. I might be wrong about that. I'm pretty sure he played for this opportunity last year and performed pretty well. I would not be surprised if there was a closer game than that 10-point line with Kansas City and Denver. And Noah Gray, who's a top 10 tight end somehow since Week 11, playing full-time snaps with Mr. Kelsey out. Wentz was the quarterback, too, last year in Week 18. Against the Niners for the Rams.